Saturday, January 16, 2010
Language update for January
Professor Polistra has a new update on overused or misused Words In The News.
Heart-rendering for heart-rending.
Properly, heart-rendering should mean removing the heart and converting it to useful by-products like dog food and gelatin. However, rending is archaic, only surviving in this one pat phrase and a few biblical quotations. So the switch to a more current word is expectable.
Noise
The journalistic branch of the crimate conspiracy likes to call the real scientists "noise".
And the CIA types are trying to use "noise in the system" as an excuse for their failure to detect Abdul bin Underpants.
Noise in the system is a real and important technical problem. In communication or data analysis, prying a meaningful signal out of the roar of competing junk can be extremely difficult. But that's not at all what we have here. In the crimate case, the "noise" is plain truth backed by perfectly obvious facts and logic. In the Underpants case the "noise" is a direct report by Abdul bin Underpants Senior to a CIA agent.
Both are pure signal, presented in direct and readable form. The only noise is the buzzing mass of wildly false delusions crammed into the alleged so-called quote "minds" unquote, and I use that term extremely loosely, of the establishment "scientists" and the establishment CIA types.
Someone who
An unnecessary pleonasm, suddenly epidemic.
"If you're someone who needs pain medication ..."
"He's somebody who always takes the easy road."
"I'm someone who's working on a new non-fiction book."
"Palin hasn't been someone who has gone on Meet The Press."
This reminds Prof Polistra of the circumlocutions that clutter up French, such as "qu'est-ce que c'est."
Extablish
Old 'hypercorrect' pronunciations like excape and excetera are rarely heard nowadays in educated circles, but extablish seems to be spreading. It may be coming from Obama, since elites always ape the King. Expecially when the King belongs to the elite party. Prof Polistra will check on this ...... Later: No, it's not coming from Obama. He clearly says establish.
Professor Polistra has a new update on overused or misused Words In The News.
Heart-rendering for heart-rending.
Properly, heart-rendering should mean removing the heart and converting it to useful by-products like dog food and gelatin. However, rending is archaic, only surviving in this one pat phrase and a few biblical quotations. So the switch to a more current word is expectable.
Noise
The journalistic branch of the crimate conspiracy likes to call the real scientists "noise".
And the CIA types are trying to use "noise in the system" as an excuse for their failure to detect Abdul bin Underpants.
Noise in the system is a real and important technical problem. In communication or data analysis, prying a meaningful signal out of the roar of competing junk can be extremely difficult. But that's not at all what we have here. In the crimate case, the "noise" is plain truth backed by perfectly obvious facts and logic. In the Underpants case the "noise" is a direct report by Abdul bin Underpants Senior to a CIA agent.
Both are pure signal, presented in direct and readable form. The only noise is the buzzing mass of wildly false delusions crammed into the alleged so-called quote "minds" unquote, and I use that term extremely loosely, of the establishment "scientists" and the establishment CIA types.
Someone who
An unnecessary pleonasm, suddenly epidemic.
"If you're someone who needs pain medication ..."
"He's somebody who always takes the easy road."
"I'm someone who's working on a new non-fiction book."
"Palin hasn't been someone who has gone on Meet The Press."
This reminds Prof Polistra of the circumlocutions that clutter up French, such as "qu'est-ce que c'est."
Extablish
Old 'hypercorrect' pronunciations like excape and excetera are rarely heard nowadays in educated circles, but extablish seems to be spreading. It may be coming from Obama, since elites always ape the King. Expecially when the King belongs to the elite party. Prof Polistra will check on this ...... Later: No, it's not coming from Obama. He clearly says establish.
Labels: Language update
¶ 9:18 AM
